


What Happens in the Family . . .

by StressyMessyAndDepressy



Series: Family Matters [1]
Category: Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 15:00:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18013082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StressyMessyAndDepressy/pseuds/StressyMessyAndDepressy
Summary: As Arturo scanned the room for a note that wasn’t there, he wondered when he’d become the enemy.





	What Happens in the Family . . .

Arturo was usually a calm man. He kept to himself, quiet unless he was giving orders to save someone’s life as a doctor - and being a doctor was likely one of the reasons why he didn’t like conflict.

None of that was really working out for him right now, unfortunately. He resisted the strong urge to put his hands over his ears as he was sitting down on the couch, watching his brother and parents go back and forth.

“Mom, I am eighteen now - you couldn’t stop me if you tried, and if my wish is to go be a sailor, then I will go and be a sailor.” Angel was more tense than he had ever seen him - usually, Angel was the more easy-going of the two of them, but today, all his muscles and all his joints were tensed, his jaw clenched, only unclenching to growl out the words. 

“But you can’t leave! You turned eighteen only a month ago - your schooling finished a week ago, and you still have college to go through and the family business to carry on. There is no way you are leaving now, tarnishing the family name to go become a sailor - a sailor!” Mother, on the other hand, was shrieking at Angel. Despite her angry demeanor, Arturo could see that she was close to tears, eyes getting shinier with each sound.

Arturo knew that Angel could see it do. It appeared that he just didn’t care this time, and he steamrollered on, his voice steadily getting deeper as his mother’s voice got steadily higher, the two talking over themselves enough that at the end no one except them could hear either of them - and Arturo, as well as his father, had had enough.

“Quiet!” his father commanded, and although he wasn’t quite as loud or quite as aggressive as his wife and child, everyone quieted down instantly.

His father turned to Angel. “You will not be leaving this family, nor the family business. If you wish to leave, you will leave to do something worthwhile with your life - your mother is right. Nothing will come out of you sailing your life away like the rest of those high-headed, wobble-kneed airheads. They do nothing but drink their life away until they grow old, with nothing but a few pennies to sustain them.

“Your mother and I hoped that you would grow out of this foolish fantasy. Ever since you were young, you were obsessed with playing pirate, with the sea. It seems like you never did.” His father heaved a sigh. “Why couldn’t you be more like Arturo? He’s a man with his head on straight, a doctor, reaching towards a PhD to boot.” 

Arturo cringed. He hated it when his father brought him into the argument, which had become more and more over the past few months, as Angel had started getting into more fights with his parents, more dead set on his sailor goal than ever before.

Angel didn’t like it either, of course, and he stormed off, one of the many times this had happened since all . . . this had started.

Arturo withheld a sigh, walking out of the room as his father, having no such qualms, sighed heavily again. He knew better than to find out Angel know - the constant comparison wore down on his nerves until their relationship was no longer as strong as it once had been. He’d go talk to him in the morning - it was late, and Arturo’s eyes were starting to droop. That would give Angel enough time to calm down as well.

\---

Arturo and Angel used to play pirates together. Arturo would be the first mate and Angel the captain, and the two would run around in grass , waving sticks at each other in poor imitation of a swordfight. When they could convince the other kids to join them, there would be a rival ship, and they’d fight to the death, at which point either Angel or the opposing team’s captain would fall down dramatically, always crying, “A captain goes down with his ship!”

For the longest time, it was the only thing the two had any interest in playing. Arturo, however, grew out of the pirate phase well before Angel, who never really did. While for the first few years it could be explained away by the fact that Arturo was older, as Angel passed the age that Arturo had gotten over pirates, his parents no longer had an excuse for Angel’s pirate passion.

Angel never did let go of that passion, and Arturo didn’t understand how his parents couldn’t see the inevitable coming - Angel leaving to become a sailor. Angel’s only calling had really ever been the sea, whether it be the beach, or swimming, or reading up on the many creatures of the ocean, he could never get his head out of the water and into a classroom.

Maybe that was a good thing. Arturo could never see his brother as a doctor. He never wanted to see his brother as a doctor. Maybe it was time to leave the sidelines and make sure he never did.

He threw his covers off. Ready or not, he was discussing this with Angel now.

\---

But when he burst into Angel’s room it was empty. Drawers were open and clothes were everywhere. It looked as though someone had gone through the room in a hurry, and, judging by the absence of a couple pictures, a few of Angel’s favourite clothes, and the lack of his bag on the floor next to the bed, it looked as though someone had taken what was important and left.

A year ago, this wouldn’t have happened. And if it did, a year ago, Angel would have come to say goodbye - if not to his parents, then to Arturo.

As Arturo scanned the room for a note that wasn’t there, he wondered when he’d become the enemy.


End file.
